Customers identify with their community

It’s easy to fall into the trap of viewing customers and prospects as just a homogeneous collective with similar personal needs and desires. We can overlook that they are part of local communities they identify strongly with and are often extremely passionate about. The more ‘local’ your brand feels, it follows that the more predisposed consumers will be towards it, especially if you show that you share that passion and connection for the local area with them.

Customers search locally

According to the survey, the most prevalent categories for ‘near me’ searches was as follows:

Food — 84 percent

Entertainment — 56 percent

Banking — 50 percent

Apparel — 41 percent

Persona care — 38 percent

With the data undeniable, it is vital that brands optimise their marketing for the locations they operate in, especially in the key digital areas including paid search, social advertising, organic social posting, listings management and SEO. If you’re not targeting consumers searching locally, your customers are likely visiting local businesses or national brands that have realised the power of local.

Locally relevant content improves local engagement

At the 2014 Cannes Lions festival last year Sir John Hegarty, founder of advertising agency BBH, said that global advertising “does not work” because people feel it “isn’t a part of their culture and doesn’t connect with them”. Local area marketing tactics such as sponsoring or hosting local events, offering location-specific promotions, featuring local teams and staff in marketing, and engaging local communities on social media can all work to humanise your brand and help you become part of the fabric of the local communities you operate in.

Traditional local area marketing is easy talk about, but much harder to execute. That has changed in recent years with the proliferation local marketing automations tools right across the media channels, traditional and digital. You can find a great summary of this technology in Brand Machine’s latest eBook…..